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Escambia and Santa Rosa add 3 new COVID-19 cases overnight to reach 255 in both counties

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Escambia County's positive COVID-19 cases grew by two overnight and Santa Rosa County reported one additional case, bringing the total to 255 cases in both counties.

After reporting two more cases in Pensacola (for a total of 127), Escambia County now has 184 cases, according to the report released Thursday morning by the Florida Department of Health. Santa Rosa County's additional case was in Milton (now with 27 cases) as the county-wide total grew to 71.

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The number of cases reported in Escambia County long-term care facilities remained unchanged overnight. A total 18 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed among either residents or staff members in Escambia County centers, and there is still one such case in Santa Rosa County.

The Florida Department of Health is not identifying the facilities where the cases are located nor whether the affected people are residents or staff members, citing privacy laws. Statewide, there were 528 cases of residents or staff with COVID-19 in long-term care facilities, as of Thursday morning.

In Florida, another 31 people died overnight to bring the death toll to 354 as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases grew by more than 650 from Wednesday evening to reach 16,364 by Thursday morning.

Five people in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties have died due to COVID-19.

A total of 3,929 people have been tested for COVID-19 in both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Of those tested in Escambia County, 7% have been positive, while 6% of those tested in Santa Rosa County have been positive.

However, public health officials have cautioned that testing numbers reported by the Florida Department of Health have lagged behind numbers reported by locally by Pensacola area hospitals.

Sixteen Escambia County residents and 12 in Santa Rosa County have been hospitalized due to COVID-19, though that does not necessarily mean those patients are still in the hospital. The state is not currently tracking the number of patients who have been treated and released from hospitals.

Statewide, a total of 2,149 COVID-19 positive people have been hospitalized at some point during their illness.